Over the course of a long career, Brian Morris has created an
impressive body of engaging and insightful writings—from social
anthropology and ethnography to politics, history, and philosophy—that
have made these subjects accessible to the layperson without sacrificing
analytical rigor. But until now, the essays collected here, originally
published in obscure journals and political magazines, have been largely
unavailable to the broad readership to which they are so naturally
suited. The opposite of arcane, specialized writing, Morris’s work takes
an interdisciplinary approach that moves seamlessly among topics,
offering up coherent and practical connections between his various
scholarly interests and his deeply held commitment to anarchist politics
and thought.

Approached in this way, anthropology and ecology are largely untapped
veins whose relevance for anarchism and other traditions of social
thought have only recently begun to be explored and debated. But there
is a long history of anarchist writers drawing upon works in those
related fields. Morris’s essays both explore past connections and
suggest ways that broad currents of anarchist thought will have new and
ever-emerging relevance for anthropology and many other ways of
understanding social relationships. His writings avoid the constraints
of dogma and reach across an impressive array of topics to give readers a
lucid orientation within these traditions and point to new ways to
confront common challenges.

Praise:

“Brian Morris blazed a lot of trails. He is a scholar of genuine
daring and great humanity, and his work deserves to be read and debated
for a very long time to come.“
—David Graeber, author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years

“This is a marvelously original book bursting with new ideas. I have
read it with enormous interest and admiration. This collection of essays
is an outstanding contribution to anthropology, environmental thought,
and anarchism.“
—Andrej Grubacic, professor and department chair in Anthropology and Social Change, California Institute of Integral Studies

“Before there was ’anarchist anthropology,’ there was Brian Morris.
This collection introduces the work of an intrepid pioneer, taking
anarchist perspectives to where you would least expect them.“
—Gabriel Kuhn, editor and translator of All Power to the Councils! A Documentary History of the German Revolution of 1918–1919, Liberating Society from the State and Other Writings by Erich Mühsam, and Revolution and Other Writings by Gustav Landauer

“Brian Morris’s scholarship is nothing if not compendious. . . .
Morris’s achievement is formidable. His control of such a breadth of
material is enviable, and his style is always lucid. He makes difficult
work accessible. His prose conveys the unmistakable impression of a
superb and meticulous lecturer at work.“
—Anthony P. Cohen, University of Edinburgh

Brian Morris is professor emeritus of anthropology at Goldsmiths
College, London. He received a doctorate in social anthropology at the
London School of Economics and Political Science, having done his PhD
fieldwork among hunter-gatherers in Southern India. Prior to his
academic career, he worked as a tea planter in Malawi where he has done
extensive fieldwork. He has written books and articles on topics
including ecology, botany, philosophy, history, religion, anthropology,
ethnobiology, and social anarchism. After discovering anarchist thought
in the mid-1960s, he remained active in various protests and political
movements. His previous political books include The Anarchist Geographer: An Introduction to the Life of Peter Kropotkin; Kropotkin: The Politics of Community; Ecology and Anarchism: Essays and Reviews on Contemporary Thought; and Bakunin: The Philosophy of Freedom.